INC NEWS - Neighbors target eyesores (Herald-Sun)

[Caleb Southern]

Neighbors target eyesores

By GINNY SKALSKI : The Herald-Sun
gskalski at heraldsun.com
Jul 30, 2005 : 11:03 pm ET

DURHAM -- Milton Elliott takes a lot of pride in his yard.

He has replaced the grass in front of his Drew Street home with white
impatiens, marigolds and other colorful flowers.

A miniature white picket fence surrounds each of the mulched flowerbeds and
helps discourage neighborhood dogs from watering the plants.

"It makes your property value go up," said Elliott, a 44-year-old former
concrete finisher and landscaper. "It's good for the neighborhood."

But so far, it doesn't appear that Elliott's neighbors have taken the hint.

At the house next door, the grass stood a foot tall Thursday. On the other
side, the house had more cars parked in the yard than flowers growing.

"You can't depend on the next person to do what you do with your yard,"
Elliott said. "I can't just keep my yard looking bad just because their yard
looks bad."

How well people in Durham keep up their property is a hot topic at
neighborhood meetings. Trashy, shaggy yards have prompted some people to
launch community cleanups.

The city has stepped up its efforts by regularly sending workers into
neighborhoods to identify code violations. The city also has fed money to
Keep Durham Beautiful, a relatively new nonprofit dedicated to helping clean
up the Bull City.

But issuing violation notices and sponsoring neighborhood cleanups only make
a dent in improving the city's appearance.

To Dorthea Pierce, who heads Keep Durham Beautiful, solving the problem also
takes educating residents about city ordinances and the benefits of a clean
neighborhood.

"It's a personal thing," Pierce said. "Some people think it's important and
choose to do it and some just don't think it's important."

Added Rick Hester, a nuisance abatement specialist for the city: "To you
it's an eyesore. To the guy who's letting his grass grow up, it's not. He's
got other things to do."

Grass, cars and trash,

Among the top complaints are overgrown grass and weedy lots, cars parked on
lawns, garbage-strewn yards and trash carts being left in front of homes all
week long.

To some neighbors, it's just a blemish. But city officials worry that
unsightly conditions, particularly in concentrated areas, can breed crime.

That's the "broken window" theory -- that crime increases in blighted
neighborhoods because criminals think no one sees or cares.

And while the theory often is associated with areas that have boarded-up
houses and abandoned vehicles, criminals also keep their eyes peeled for
streets that are simply untidy, Pierce said.

"If there's a street where neighbors don't mow, don't cut hedges, then bad
elements see that and know they can move in without fear," she said.

Since September, the city's code enforcement team has been targeting a
blighted, 96-square-block area called North-East Central Durham.

When violations are found, letters go to the property owners, offering a
chance to correct the problems.

The team has inspected 1,086 houses. Of those houses, 417 had violations,
according to the city Department of Housing and Community Development. So
far, problems at 251 have been corrected.

"North-East Central Durham is where we need to be concentrating our efforts
because that's where the majority of the run-down houses are," Hester said.

Other trouble spots

It's not hard to find problems in other neighborhoods.

Richard Mullinax, who lives in Old North Durham just north of downtown,
counted 207 trash carts left curbside five days after garbage day.

Mullinax has helped organize neighborhood cleanups in hopes of encouraging
residents to follow the lead of volunteers who spent hours clearing
sidewalks of overgrown weeds.

But he still finds some people who aren't willing to take responsibility for
maintaining their property.

"I have a firm belief that people came to Durham to cut loose," Mullinax
said. "Anything goes, anybody who comes here loves the freedom we have in
Durham ? and I think that freedom translates into a little bit of a shabbier
look than you would find in other places."

In Colonial Village off Roxboro Street and Club Boulevard near Bragtown, Ken
Gasch is on a mission to stop his neighbors from parking on their lawns.

Gasch mails letters on behalf of the neighborhood association, telling
residents that yard parking can damage gas and water lines and kill grass.

"Parking on the yard sends a message that we do not care about the look and
feel of our neighborhood and thus encourages other annoying behavior such as
litter and other general neglect," the letter says.

Taking action

At a recent InterNeighborhood Council meeting, the group asked City Manager
Patrick Baker to find a way to make sure the city enforced its ordinance
against yard parking.

Baker pledged to walk the streets of Colonial Village with Gasch to see the
problem himself. Baker said he would meet with the group in September for an
update.

Pierce is working to win certification for Keep Durham Beautiful from the
national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful, the nation's largest nonprofit
community improvement and educational organization.

Once affiliated, Keep Durham Beautiful can tap more resources to help clean
up neighborhoods and teach residents to take greater responsibility for
improving their community.

Still, Pierce said, significant changes occur only if residents want to
help. "The city can't do everything if the citizens refuse to take
responsibility," she said.